He has brought us to this place once more, Amen
Oh trouble has moved through the city
death has passed through but he kept us
and for that we give him glory
for that we praise him tonight, Amen
Father I thank you for the teaching tonight
I ask that you anoint them
that you bend down into your soul
give them wisdom, give them knowledge
but most of all God give them understanding
We wish of you God for being compassionate
being understanding, being long suffering
being unconditional Lord
we wish of you tonight
because God if we did not have you
no telling where we would be?
Now father these and other blessings
we ask of our son Jesus in his name Amen
Amen, Amen, Amen
Praise him
You are excused!
Amen, Amen, Amen
My mom told me I already have three strikes against me
the fact that I’m a black girl
I grew up in Bessemer
and I’m a woman
I done see a lot of people say
on Facebook we’re in the top 5 dangerous cities in the United States
Fox say it on the news
When you say you’re from Bessemer
they feel like what can she do for the world
all she knows how to do is fight and be hood and all of this
They feel like they can’t do nothing for real
What I don’t like going about Bessemer city high school
is its stereotypes
they see the fights, how police is always at the school
how we are failing school
They feel like Bessemer don’t have no intelligence
and they ain’t teaching us nothing
For me I felt like that was the reason I needed to see
I done seen what it can happen if I fail
so that just tell me what I need to do
You need to succeed
You know it’s not as bad as they say it is
Yeah we might have some issues in Bessemer
but at the same time it’s a good place
How can you dog your own city?
This city isn't that bad for real for real
it just needs working on
In my eyes we’re a big family
we all get along
we’re from the same place, everybody know everybody
In my eyes I was proud to be one of them
208 students to graduate
they said they never had that many students graduate
This letting me know okay keep on going
there’s something out there for me
that I can show to somebody else
So why would you fear me?
If you do fear me, you fear black girl
that’s going to make the world change
You’re not gonna fear oh this black girl
is gonna make the world go down
You’re gonna fear a black girl
that's gonna built the world up
and you shocked that its gonna happen
Here’s to Jar'Derrica Kidd
Owe owe let me get out of here!
I did it! Congratulations!